Early this morning the international trailer for the film (which included several additional images) became available online. Now we bring you our interview with director Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted) and vamp slaying ‘Honest Abe’ himself: Benjamin Walker.

During the course of our journey we were able to tour Abraham Lincoln’s tomb and Presidential library/museum (stay tuned for a video of the filmmakers in Lincoln’s restricted vault), screen select scenes from the film in the museum’s Union Theater, and participate in a Q & A with Bekmambetov, co-screenwriter/source novelist Seth Grahame-Smith, Walker and Jim Lemley (Producer). And so it was that I found myself interviewing Bekmambetov and Walker at midnight, in an atmosphere rich with smoke machines amidst a private reception in the entryway of Abraham Lincoln’s Presidential museum.

We were all a bit loopy with exhaustion and the thrill of the surreal. And though the gentlemen seemed understandably sleepy (Bekmambetov is hard at work on the film’s post production), I rather enjoyed their take on what vampires mean in the larger metaphorical scheme of things. Having said that, our time was a bit brief, so for some more meaty details on the project we have included a video of the extended Q & A post-screening.

It was rather interesting to hear the filmmakers describe to the evolution of the project from Grahame-Smith’s initial pitch, to the decision to have Bekmambetov direct rather than producer Tim Burton, to the casting of (the relatively unknown) Benjamin Walker, who was, interestingly enough, most well-known for his work in the play Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson at the time.

We’ve already shared the group’s thoughts on a potential sequel for the film, but for a bit more on the finer points of this fantastically revisionist version of our history, take a look at the videos below.

Interview with director Timur Bekmambetov and star Benjamin Walker

(Take a look at our interview with Anthony Mackie, in which he likens Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter to The MatrixHERE.)